


Higher Ground

by captainamergirl



Category: All My Children, General Hospital
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M, When Robin met Ryan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-15 12:41:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16063373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: Picking up in 2010. A Ryan Lavery/Robin Scorpio love story.





	1. Preface: Seeking Higher Ground

**Preface: Seeking Higher Ground**  

Robin Scorpio had awaken for what seemed like the fifteenth time just this month alone feeling ill, sick to her stomach, and so completely drained of energy that it took every last bit of strength inside of her to even climb out of her bed on this morning. Lately it took her as much as ten minutes before she could even lift her head off the pillow and go attend to her little daughter just down the hall. She kept telling herself that she was just tired; that she worked too much and too hard; that she was just emotionally spent from all the stuff going on not just with herself but also with her friends and family members too. But as much as she tried to deny it to herself, she knew somehow in the back of her mind that she was really genuinely ill. She was however scared to say anything because if she said it out loud, if she verbalized her pain, then it would somehow make it real. She would have to admit that her HIV could be progressing into full-blown AIDs and she didn't want that. She had never been scared of dying in the past but now she had her daughter to think about and the thought of her sweet, trusting Emma growing up in a world with people like Lisa Niles walking around free... Well, it truly terrified usually sensible Robin Scorpio.

However, she kept these feelings and emotions and also her symptoms a secret until one morning when she was at General Hospital and she couldn't hide the truth anymore.

She had just left a patient's room when she suddenly felt herself become very dizzy. She felt herself go slack next and then she hit a chair on her way down to the floor. She immediately blacked out.

When she awoke again, she would soon come to realize that things would never be the same for her. _Ever._

XoXoXo

Ryan Lavery stared at the evidence in his hands. No, the proof. The proof that Greenlee, his beloved Greenlee, had aligned herself with the devil himself. A Chandler. Scott Chandler of all people. Ryan hadn't wanted to believe it when Madison presented him with the evidence. He had outright called Madison a liar even in the face of the truth; even called her a fake when she laid a paternity test on top of the stack of financial transactions that proved Greenlee's duplicity. The paternity test clearly said the name "Ryan Lavery" on it but Ryan couldn't believe it. Not then. He made a big show off shredding all of the papers to pieces in front of a teary-eyed Madison, and then threw her out, letting his temper once again get the best of him.

He had tried to let it go. When Greenlee arrived back at the loft that evening, he quietly asked her where she had been and she hedged about answering before finally declaring that she had pulled a double-shift at Fusion. But he knew that wasn't true because he had called her after Madison left in tears and Kendall had coldly informed him Greenlee had blown off work yet again to run off to parts unknown.

Ryan tried to ignore his gut instincts that told him he was in for a world of hurt, as was everyone else. Greenlee knew what children meant to him. She knew Ryan couldn't turn away a child of his own. Greenlee had let her own worst fears get to her though and it would be all of their downfalls.

A week passed. She was still coming home with more excuses about where she had been. Then Ryan bumped into Madison at the grocery store the next day when he was shopping with his daughter. Madison had taunted him that he would soon have another child to add to his "collection". Ryan had hurried little Emma out of the store and then he had gone home and called Tad Martin. He had asked Tad to discreetly look into some things regarding Scott Chandler. Tad had jumped on the case. By nightfall, he had arrived at Ryan's door step with the proof. Proof that Greenlee had transferred thousands of dollars into Scott's private accounts and that she had even been the person who anonymously posted his bail. All to keep the truth from coming out...

Ryan was angry. No, he was livid and he wanted to hurt someone. He wanted to make the betrayal he was feeling go away. He had proof his Greenlee was what he had originally thought she was when they met all those years ago - a fake, a phony, a treacherous, selfish little witch .... People had tried to warn him time and time again and he had turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the truth.

And that's when he knew he had to leave. If he didn't race to higher ground he was going to literally hurt someone and he didn't ever want to be his father...


	2. Nowhere Else to Turn

**Chapter 1: Nowhere Else to Turn**  
  
Robin came around to consciousness under bright lights and immediately slammed her eyelids shut. "Ugh," she murmured. She could tell she was lying down but even with that and her eyes closed, she still felt dizzy as hell.   
  
"Robin," she heard a familiar voice say beside her. She reluctantly opened her eyes and turned to see her estranged husband Patrick staring down at her. His hand came to rest in her hair. "You scared the hell out of all of us. Mac's already outside pacing the floor. Maxie is raising hell with the nurses."  
  
Robin struggled to sit up but found she was too weak. Tears burned the back of her eyes as she looked up at Patrick's face. He saw how weak she was as well and it hurt him. She didn't think she would ever forgive him for putting Emma in harm's way because of his tryst with the crazy doctor-lady but in that moment she loved him for caring. She touched his arm. "How long have I been out of it?"  
  
"Just a few minutes. Ernesto from the lab is coming up to draw some of your blood so we can see just what's going on."  
  
Robin nodded. "I think I already know what's going on."  
  
"What do you think is going on, Robin?" Patrick asked, dropping down beside her and squeezing her hand tightly as if he was afraid to let go of her even for a second.  
  
"Patrick, I have HIV. I haven't told you this, but I've been very weak lately. There are mornings lately when it's all I can do just to climb out of bed and feed Emma her breakfast."  
  
Patrick swore under his breath but aloud he said, "Why didn't you say something, Robin?"  
  
"Because I had to be strong for Emma."  
  
"You're allowed to have weak moments, Robin," Patrick said. "You're allowed to feel like shit but you also have to tell someone about it."  
  
"I know. But I wanted Emma to have a full-time mother. I am afraid if my HIV advances ... like I think it is ... I won't be able to care for her anymore. My sweet little girl..." Now the tears came, thinking of Emma growing up without a mother, growing up without Robin to teach her and guide her and tell her she cared. "Was I selfish, Patrick?" She asked quietly as tears poured down her face.  
  
Patrick reached out and ran his thumb over her tear streaked face. "About what?"  
  
"To bring a child into the world when I might not even live to see her eighteenth birthday. Or hell, even her eighth one..."  
  
Patrick shook his head adamantly. "You will live, Robin, a long time. You don't have AIDs."  
  
"How can you be sure about that when I'm not?"  
  
"Because I see your strength, Robin. There has got to be something else going on and we're going to find out what it is."  
  
"You might have to accept ..."  
  
"No, I don't have to accept anything, Robin. And you can't either. Fight this, okay? We will figure out what's going on and we'll make it alright again."  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Ryan scrawled a note quickly and left it on the coffee table for Greenlee to give to Emma. All he wrote was _"I'm going for a few days. Give my love to my kids."_ That was all he trusted himself to do and all he would take the time out to do. He didn't want to run into Greenlee. He didn't trust himself around her right now and he refused to turn into a rage-monster like his father had been.  
  
He quickly shoved a few days worth of clothes into a duffel bag, grabbed his bike helmet and then stomped back towards the front door. He happened to catch sight of a picture of him and Greenlee in much happier times. He quickly turned it over instead of throwing it on the ground and stomping on it like he really wanted to. Then he turned over another picture of them and walked out of the loft he had shared with her; walked out on the life they had built because she had already took a wrecking ball to it and destroyed everything.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
The lab tech Ernesto came and drew copious amounts of blood and even took extra to have the pathologist study Robin's plasma as well. Robin also was instructed to urinate in a cup after being forced to lie down and submit to an IV drip of saline and dextrose because Patrick was certain of at least one thing at that juncture. She was dehydrated if nothing else.  
  
Matt and Maxie had left awhile ago to pick up Emma from the sitter's and take care of her for the night. Robin knew she wouldn't get to see her baby until at least the next morning and it made her feel so small and sad. She wanted to have these last precious moments with Emma if she was really dying. She didn't want to believe it but she felt weak. She felt like Stone had said he felt near the end of his life...  
  
Mac was sitting at her bedside trying to get her to watch the Superbowl with him on the room's small TV. He was trying his best to coax her into smiling or even just talking but so far it had not worked. Finally he clicked off the TV with the remote control and sat back in his chair, looking at her as he grasped her hand. "You're going to be alright, Robin. You have lots of years left, I know it. You're going to see Emma graduate kindergarten and then one day high school and college. You're definitely going to be front row at her wedding shedding tears upon tears when she finally says 'I do' to the right man. I promise you and your daughter have lots of time together. I don't know how I know that but I do.... So just say you'll keep fighting the way you always have."  
  
Robin nodded weakly. "I am not giving up yet, Uncle Mac, definitely not."  
  
Robin looked up as Patrick suddenly walked into the room. His face was drawn and he looked both uneasy and perplexed. "What is it?" Robin asked. "Do I have - I mean has my condition progressed..." Why couldn't she say the word "AIDs" right now?  
  
"No sign of that yet, Robin," Patrick said. "But your CD4 count is very low as is your T-lymphocyte count."  
  
Robin breathed a brief sigh of relief. "That's good, right? I mean, no sign of my disease progressing to full-blown AIDs." Now she could say it with a bit more confidence.  
  
"What does all this mean, Patrick?" Mac asked, speaking up. "Why is Robin's CD4 and T-lymph-whatever-its-called so low if she's taking her pills?" He looked at Robin. "You have been taking your cocktail of stuff religiously?"  
  
Robin nodded. "Yes. I never forget."  
  
"Then what is it?"  
  
Patrick sighed. "Well, that's what we have to find out. I want to check Robin's pill supply and then we'll go from there."  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Ryan had hopped on his bike at around eight p.m. and hadn't stopped driving since then. The night was darker than he could have imagined, both literally and in every other way. He felt sick and angry and also, just tired.  
  
He remembered a time when he used to ride with no helmet on and he thought of taking it off now and chucking it in the middle of the deserted patch of highway he was travelling on but resisted. He had no less than three kids to think about now. Everything else may be a mess but he had kids - including one on the way - and he wasn't going to kill himself just because he could. Not even when he was this upset.  
  
He didn't know where he was heading when he started off and he still didn't know. He passed sign after sign saying he was approaching New York and finally he came to a sign that read _"Port Charles.12 Miles"_. For some reason the name resonated with him in some dark part of his mind and he decided since it was past midnight, he might as well find a motel there and bunk for the night at least. He had nowhere else to go anyway.


End file.
